Search Results for: photo milk jug 8

How to Burn a Milk Jug

Step 1: Light the lighter and set the milk jug on fire.

Lighter

Step 2: Milk jug starts to melt and burn.

Milk Jug 2

Step 3: Milk jug collapses on itself.

Milk Jug 3

Step 4: Milk jug 3/4 gone; reduced to melted plastic, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons, and water!

Glens Falls

Step 5: It keeps burning up and disappearing.

Rural Population vs Rural Landmass

Step 7: It’s almost entirely gone.

Rainy Day in Canaan Heights

Step 8: All that’s left is a little resin left in the coals.

Spectacle Lake

The fire has almost completely disposed of this milk jug that was previously just trash that otherwise would have lasted forever in a landfill. The fire will eventually burn out, and what remains will be burnt up in the next fire.

Site Map

🌲🌲 Our Public Lands 🌳🌲

Interactive maps with backcountry and roadside camping: New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia & Vermont.
List of NYS DEC Lean-Tos with map coordinates. List of NYS DEC Firetowers with map coordinates and more information.
Google Spreadsheet with Roadside, Primitive and Pay Campsites

Explore the Finger Lakes Trail, Long Path, Northville-Placid Trail and Long Trail/Appalachian in Vermont.
Catskill Park Mountain Peaks, Hudson Valley & Long Island Peaks, Peaks Over 3000 ft Elevation, Highest Peaks in Adirondacks, Interactive Map of All Named Summits in NYS, Blaze Colors in Catskill Park, Trailhead Parking Coordinates and Addresses in the Catskills.

Browse USGS Topo Quads as PDF 🆕 by State Lands or County. You can Bulk Download New & Old USGS Topograpic Maps.

Links to various NY State Land Websites 🆕. Get latest GIS Data from state Web Services.

⛺🌲 Camp 🌲🏕

Moose River PlainsCampsite Listing, Maps and photos of state’s largest free camping area.
Piseco-Powley RoadCampsite Listing, Maps and photos of 15 mile dirt road with camping.
Catskill Park Primitive CampsitesAn overview of free camping locations in Catskill Park.
Burnt-Rossman Forest, Cattaraugus County, East Branch Sacandaga River, Finger Lakes National Forest, Madison County, Pennsylvania, Vermont and West Virigina.

Campsite Coordinates for Bog River Flow / Lows Lake, Hudson River SMA (Buttermilk Falls), Lake Lila, Oswegathie River, Nine-Corner Lake, Pharaoh Lake Wilderness, Saranac River Campsites, Stillwater Lake, Schoharie County, and Sugar Hill State Forest.

Overview of Camping Areas in the Catskills, Green Mountains, Southern Adirondacks, Central Adirondacks, Northern Adirondacks, Allegheny National Forest and Penna. DCNR Motorized Campsites and the Monongahela National Forest West Virginia.

Free Campsite Overview Maps: Adirondack – North Country, Catskills, Central NY, Finger Lakes, Western NY. Interactive Map.

Places I camped in 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020.

🏞 🛹 Bicycle Trails and “Blackie” My Mountain Bike 🚲 🚶

Finally bought a mountain bike, after chewing over a mountain vs commuter bike. Really enjoying riding my bike to work and when it rains there is always a bike rack to safely take it back home. One way to get to adventures at Thacher Park is the Nature Bus.

Empire Trail – KMZ and Interactive Map. Parking along it.

More Trailways with KMZ files including the Albany County Rail Trail, Black Diamond Trail, Catharine Valley Trail, Catskill Scenic Trail, Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Rail Trail, Genesee Valley Trail, Link Trail.

🦌🌲 Hunt 🦃🐿

Wildlife Management Units (Deer)KMZ Map shows the WMU boundaries.

Summer 2019 Aerial Photographs of WMUs

KMZ Maps of Deer Harvest Density by Town: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016. By WMU 2017, 2016, 2015.

KMZ Maps of Buck Harvest Density by Town: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016. By WMU 2017, 2016

2016 -2019 Deer and Buck Harvest by TownKMZ Spreadsheet with FIPS codes for making your own calculations.

🎣🐡 Fish 🐟🐠

Parking and Access to Trout StreamsAn interactive, downloadable KMZ Map.
Lakes with DEC Contour MapsA KMZ Map links to Contour Maps for Fishing.

🌨🏔 Sled & Wheel 🚙❄

State Truck Trails Over A Half MileDirt roads to explore in the backcountry.
NYS Statewide Snowmobile Trail SystemState trails on public and private lands.

📉📊 Learn 💵📈

Interactive Maps of NY CensusExplore and download KML files.
Charts and Interactive DiagramsFrom population to pollution control.
Andy Arthur GitHubGit my R and Python scripts used to make maps and diagrams.
Use ArcPullR to Get Geospatial DataSuper easy way to connect to get GIS data in R from government servers.
GDAL Opens E00 FilesMost open source programs nowadays can open common geospatial formats.
NY Building FootprintsWhere to find on the internet for making maps.
WMS and ArcMap ServicesDownloadable CSV file listing services used on the blog.
2022 US Census Population EstimatesRed states, south continue to gain population.
2020 Cartogram of State Population

💳 🏛 Property Taxes 🏠💸

Properties in Albany Pine Bush Study Area, Excel Files: Various Tax Rolls, Find coordinates and political districts, Look Up State Tax Records and a Script for Processing RPTL 1520 PDFs. Match NY SWIS Codes to FIPS Codes and GEOID

🚗🚗 Big Red 🚗🚗

Big RedPhotos and Videos of my lifted truck with its camper shell. Big Red’s Dual Battery Setup for Camp Power, Video Tour and Diagram. Big Red is getting old. What is next? I’ve thought about going carless for a while to save money and reduce pollution. Or maybe going bigger? Or smaller? Five dollar gas sucks.

🔥🌲 Off-Grid Living 🏠🤠

I am seriously thinking about building an off-grid house. I have a first draft. I need to learn CAD! I have a road map towards buying land and building. I concede might have to live with long commute and give up traveling and camping. I need to be strong.

Why off grid? Well, I’m not into contemporary society. I want to own land, but not be called a landowner, and a cabin, not hooked to electrical grid, farm, raise pigs for food and burn my own trash. I’m saving for a better tomorrow, hoping to make the leap to another freer state. Having acreage is important. Cornfields aren’t bad neighbors. Maybe though my vision has grown smaller and more local. More on off-grid living.

I am 16 years into my career and have made some significant progress in my life. I love my job. But I do wonder on all the things I’m missing out but saving sure makes me high. Maybe it will be different when I own my own land — the end of goal of all this saving.

2020 into 2021 during the pandemic was a year of remote work. It was a struggle not having internet at home, worked a lot out of my truck. But I worked remotely from Horseshoe Lake which was super cool.

Generally I like the idea of owning land in a red state, particularly Idaho, Iowa, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin — and Midwest more generally. But I may settle for New York – it’s all about the f-ing money!

💻👨‍💻 Open Source 🗺️📍

I use open source software and public sources of data for the blog. Quantum GIS (QGIS), GDAL/ogr2ogr, PyQGIS, GeoPANDAS, R Studio and Leaflet for map making, Arduino and ESP32 microprocessors, Ubuntu Linux and XFCE Window Manager. I’ve recently gotten interested in machine learning.

I avoid using commercial software like Microsoft Windows and do not have home internet or television. If you don’t use commercial software and use your brain, fears of computer viruses are overblown. I deleted most of my social media accounts.

Creating Digital Surface Models using LiDAR Point Clouds.

📊🗺 R Statistical Programming 📜👨‍🏫

The R programming language and RStudio are powerful tools for statistical analysis, making maps and charts. Many of the blog posts and analysis I do are in R, ggplot not only makes great charts but also maps using tidycensus. Generally, R is better then Python for geospatial work.

Use IDW Interpolation to fill in missing Census data, Zonal Histograms for land cover, load WMS Aerial Photography in R, find mountain peaks, save Census shapefiles using tigris quickly, pull NY Election Night Results using Selenium. Fast reverse Geocoding in PostGIS. Working with PDFs in R. Fix a common error starting rselenium/wdman. Make data-filled calendars. R is wonderful and weird, learn it!

🐼🔢 Python and Pandas 💻🐍

Querying state property database, political enrollments, PL 94-171 Census files, calculating population statistics, what address is a district in, converting old districts to new districts, Shapefiles missing Projection information in QGIS.

Learn to code for free modern HTML, Javascript, Python and SQL at freeCodeCamp and web development at the Odin Project.

🐴 🐘 Politics 🦁 🐍

Crunched Election Results with Turnout for Albany County: November 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and Primaries June 2019, Pres/June 2020, June 2021, June 2022, Aug 2022, June 2023.

Albany County Races converted to the new 2023 EDs using Super EDs and Code: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and Primaries June 2019, Pres/June 2020, June 2021, June 2022, Aug 2022.

Above Election Results as zipped Excel files.

Albany County Legislature Districts 2024 Maps

Maps Comparing 2017 and 2023 Albany County Election Districts and a Crosswalk Table Showing the Proposition of Voting Age Population in New and Old EDs

Maps of 2022 NYC Assembly Races, NYS Assembly Races, NY Senate Races, Governor’s Race in Erie County and Statewide. Partisan shift in governor race between 2010 and 2018.

A comparison of Democratic Performance 2022 Assembly Districts to those proposed in 2023 by the IRC. Here is latest 4/20/23 IRC Maps, showing ADP and how they change from existing Assembly districts. Most towns upstate, outside of cities, are quite red. Using LATFOR data with R to calculate Average Democratic Performance.

You can scrape employee salary data from SeeThroughNY using R. Other useful investigative resources.

I often think politics is for losers. I’m into the politics of statistical analysis and reading history books.

I believe strongly in the first amendment, second amendment, oppose gun restrictions and I support de-funding the police in favor of lower-cost technology and civilian employees. Maybe use red flag laws for voting to stop dangerous voters? And the media should stop promoting mass-shootings, even if it’s super profitable for all involved. They should tax the media when it promotes violence. I think some people are much too paranoid in politics. How elections are rigged under law to benefit incumbents. But vote, it’s the best option and inexpensive.

Yeah for the third parties! I voted for Larry Sharpe for Governor and Jo Jergenson for President but my views are complicated and often vote for Democrats, after voting Jill Stein Green Party in 2016.

Generally, I think Biden has been a good change over DJT and glad the Trump era is over and are glad prosecutors and grand jurors are holding him responsible by indicting him for many serious felonies. I don’t think Trump can win in 2024, as nothing has changed politically from 2020.

I think rural people should be left alone and not worship government workers or have parades for them. I am no fan of Donald Trump, his speeches are bad, I don’t like Trump’s embrace of radical environmentalists, but do admire the homemade roadside monuments to DJT.

I don’t toke. But whatever. There are too many transit authorities.

🌲🌳The Earth 🌎 🐸

Why I oppose wilderness areas and parks. It’s trendy to be green these days, but is eco-marketing good for the planet? I visited the Mount Storm Coal Plant and Corridor H.

I worry about a lot about overly-aggressive Climate Change Action, and Undermining Environment Laws for Climate Action. I think we should all admit we are Addicted to Fossil Fuels. These days, urban recycling has become a joke, when it’s still an option at all. It’s better to just buy less shit and avoid the alure of Costcos. I really don’t like how aging radicals have become industrial solar salespeople.

Big bucks are coming to state-designated disadvantaged communities under the CLCP. Which counties and political districts are in line for the the most pork? Interactive map.

I’m a big of farmers who are essentially Living Off the Earth and think Rednecks are Noble Savages. Dairy Farming are key to our rural landscape. I’d trust a farmer or a hunter in a pile of guts he’s butchered over any ivory-tower scientist.

🌎🔆 Industrial Solar 🌞 🏭

Hundreds of multi-acre industrial solar farms are being built in our state. How bad is solar for the environment? We should ask tough questions. Interactive of recently built solar farms, proposed facilities. List of proposed industrial solar facilities. See how the Greenville Solar Farm changed the landscape.

💳 💸Saving Money 💰 💷

I am not a fan of ESG Investing as it’s not well diversified. I prefer index-funds and other tax-advantaged ways of saving. Why I am concerned about saving enough for retirement, even though I’m in my late 30s. We as a nation should save more, consume less. I like the idea of carbon tax to replace capital gains taxes to discourage consumption.

🥦 🍎Mission Fifty & Being Healthier 🏠🧠

I am now officially in my 40s! I am building to a better life in my 50s, which means getting up early, walking a lot, saying no to cake and yes to more fruit. In many ways, the forties are an awesome time to be alive.

And eating healthy for less without losing sleep over arsenic. And I don’t think we should subsidize unhealthy habits. How I got started in eating healther. Meals are too focused on meat and carbs due to how we describe them, maybe I eat too many bananas in the office, what to eat while camping, worry more about salt then GMOs, eat more beans. Do spend extra for farmers market peaches, especially doughnut peaches and plums. Consider ethnic supermarkets. Thinking about how to make a healthier macaroni and cheese, spinach-mackeral-pasta salad, quick-cook biscuits and whole-wheat bread. That said, too many recipes are junk food crap. Okay in moderation is not okay. The fact that I’m thinner is not a sign I’m dying.

A few years back I decided to explore my mental illness with therapy, thinking about why I have so much anxiety and how many of my values are rational or just thinking too much rednecks’ burn barrels and how much of a throwaway society we live in. Do I want to change?

I’ve learned to care less about the world, and focus more on myself. Maybe I am happier as I am now, saving and investing a lot towards owning my own land, where I don’t have to deal with all the bullshit of modern life.

Mission Fifty: Getting to the point where I own my own land. 🚜
Healthy Eating 🍎 / Growing My Wealth 💰
Healthy Thoughts 💭 / Enjoying Life 😃

Questions, comments? Feel free to email me at andy@andyarthur.org.

You do your thing, I’ll do mine.

I use GNU open source software.
Plus I like buck goats,
because they’re real macho men
spraying their beards with goat urine.

March is upon us. Get out, enjoy it, be safe with fire and burning shit, and remember soon enough black flies are waiting.” – Andy Arthur

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June 10, 2020 Morning

Good morning! What day is it? Hump Day from the Adirondacks, of course. Two weeks to Latest Sunset 🌆. Filtered sunshine and 62 degrees at the Speculator Village Park. ⛅ There is a southeast breeze at 8 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 56 degrees.

So camp is taken down once again 🎪 and after work today I’ll most likely head home. I’m out of food and ice, well except for some dry goods like peanut butter and jelly, some mustard and eggs. 🐮 I dumped out the last cup of so of milk in the milk jug in the cat hole 💩 before breaking camp because otherwise I figured it would go rancid and it already was two days expired. I had to take down camp as my three nights in I e location, as the regulations state, had expired. Plus I don’t think today will be a very good day for solar power. ☀

To start out my day, I walked down to the boat dock at Speculator Village Park ⛲ with my binoculars to observe birds 🐦 and ducks until the first email 📧 or call 📞 of the day comes in. I know at eleven o’clock the texting program gets underway and that should keep me busy the bulk of the day besides all the other memos 📝 written, database imports ⏫ and all other necessary tasks.

Today will be scattered showers between noon and 1pm, then scattered showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Partlu cloudy ⛅ , with a high of 78 degrees at 3pm. One degree above normal, which is similar to a typical day around June 14th. Maximum dew point of 66 at 5pm. Southeast wind 8 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. The high last year was 81 degrees. The record high of 96 was set in 2008.

I have my bathing suit and beach towel ready 🏊 should the weather be nice enough and I get a break to swim during lunch or after work. I’m not sure how stormy today will be but I’m sure we might get some large booms from thunder ⚡. While I’ve been washing my hands and rinsing out my hair and shaving each day, I could definitely use a good shower 🚿 when I get home as it’s been a week since I’ve had a good scrubbing. Been cool enough up north that I’ve not been swimming.

Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:58 pm with sun having an altitude of 69.6° from the due south horizon (-0.4° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 2.2 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 7:55 pm with the sun in the west-northwest (296°). 📸 The sunset is in the borthwest (304°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 8:39 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 31 seconds with dusk around 9:13 pm, which is 34 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 10:01 pm. At sunset, look for rain 🌧 and thunderstorms 🌩 and temperatures around 71 degrees. The dew point will be 66 degrees. There will be a south-southeast breeze at 11 mph with gusts up to 21mph. Today will have 15 hours and 21 minutes of daytime, an increase of 44 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be scattered showers and thunderstorms before 9pm, then a chance of showers between 9pm and 3am, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 3am. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 67 degrees at 1am. 12 degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 67 at 10pm. South wind around 11 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. In 2019, we had light rain in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 58 degrees. The record low of 36 occurred back in 1980.

Tomorrow I’ll run to the laundromat 👚 and continue unpack and get things cleaned up. It’s yet another work day but I can work remotely from my truck while at the laundromat. I’ll also need to get groceries. 🍲 I’ll call 📞 the shop 🔧 about them looking into the wear pattern on the tire, have them rotated and a synthetic oil change. I know the service light isn’t on yet but I always like to do oil changes early to avoid sludge build up. ⛽

On this day in 1964, United States Senate breaks a 75-day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, leading to the bill’s passage. 👍 That was a big change back then and fifty years later I expect even further changes in our country. I’m glad police 🚨 reform and defund the police has gotten so much attention – I think it will make a big difference in the future of our country.

Cool but sunny this weekend and at least in Speculator. Saturday, a chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 67. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Maximum dew point of 49 at 8pm. Sunday, a chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 68. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Maximum dew point of 52 at 8pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 77 degrees.

Saturday I’ll probably walk out to Five Rivers 🚶 for bird watching 🐦 and then Sunday I’ll probably hike at one of the local preserves before going out to mom and dad’s house for Father’s Day. 👪 I’ll bring my own fork and knife 🍴 along with plate, and set up the screen tent 🎪 to help further social distancing. That said it’s at least in New York that pandemic is winding down at least for round 1.

I expect it’s likely that the Capital Region will be in Phase 3 of the reopening 🏢 and I’ll most likely be working downtown next week. Do I have any evidence of that? No. I’m just waiting to see when CDTA reopens. 🚍 I’ll probably be taking the 719 back and forth to work 💼 as that bus is rarely crowded, especially the 8:26 downtown.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until the Latest Sunset of the Year 🌆 when the sun will be setting at 8:42 pm with dusk at 9:18 pm. On that day in 2019, we had partly cloudy and temperatures between 85 and 56 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 80 degrees. We hit a record high of 96 back in 1943.

 Silence

May 30, 2016 Night

Kind of a muggy but not super hot evening and a with a temperature around 70 degrees and a dew point around 66. Mostly cloudy and damp. The good news is tomorrow the dew point is expected to drop into the mid 50s and will be quite nice despite mercury expecting to top out at 80 degrees under sunny skies.

Lost power for an hour or two in Delmar while I was at my parent’s house for our annual Memorial Day BBQ. It unfortunately poured while my dad was working on the grill. The only way I know power was out in Delmar was I heard the refrigerator compressor working non-stop to get things colder, and that the ice I had reforming from the camping trip was only partially frozen when I got home. I kept a gallon of ice in there when I left for camp but the rest of four gallons of the ice came with me and kept my food cold. I make ice in old milk jugs. I use them until they crack (two or three times). Like most things in my cheap, shitty apartment in the suburbs, the frigid is on its last legs.

It was a nice weekend but much too short. Usually I extend my Memorial Day Weekend by a few days but that didn’t happen this year because past Memorial Day Weekends have sucked with black flies, cold and rain. Plus I’ve been busy with work. Spent a lot of time hanging out at camp and tanning in the sun, soaking up the rays and swimming in Grout Pond. Brought my kayak but never used it. Without a Vermont fishing license I didn’t really feel like exploring the pond I had only seen a few years ago. Swimming in the lake, it was pretty cool to watch the schools of yellow perch swim by in the crystal clear water.

I have other thoughts but they’ll wait until tomorrow as I’m tired. Enjoy some of the photos I’ve just posted of the past weekend.